I do not think it is my age, but my American roots --- I did not catch one aspect of PoP's humor. Anyone want to fill me in or is it too much work educating a yank on a Monday?

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Let us never forget Rafael Benitez and what he did for us. A fighter full of guts and passion. A gentleman full of class and dignity. A football manager full of intelligence and pure genius. A Legend.Adios Rafa, buena suerte.

The Tea Leaves predict this game will be a high scoring rout by Liverpool, I could not believe my eyes when the wife showed me the Tea Leaves (although to be honest it just looked like a load of wet tea in the bottom of a cup to me). She took some time to fully interpret them herself, she could not believe what she was seeing Aham Dil Allah. The scene is set a Cold, Wet, Windy night on the banks of the River Thames.

Luis Suarez for a hatrick, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge each getting a brace.

Yossi Benayoun. Stoppage time. 1-0. Players run on the pitch. Still get goosebumps.

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Let us never forget Rafael Benitez and what he did for us. A fighter full of guts and passion. A gentleman full of class and dignity. A football manager full of intelligence and pure genius. A Legend.Adios Rafa, buena suerte.

Crap. He should have awarded us penalty at Bridge but there have been far worse refs in PL this season.[/quotethought phil dowd is the ref...Team news and press conferences to follow.Match AppointmentsReferee: Phil Dowd. Assistants: D Bryan, A Halliday. Fourth Official: A D'Urso.thats off the premierleague .com site?

The Tea Leaves predict this game will be a high scoring rout by Liverpool, I could not believe my eyes when the wife showed me the Tea Leaves (although to be honest it just looked like a load of wet tea in the bottom of a cup to me). She took some time to fully interpret them herself, she could not believe what she was seeing Aham Dil Allah. The scene is set a Cold, Wet, Windy night on the banks of the River Thames.

Luis Suarez for a hatrick, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge each getting a brace.

Fulham 0 - 7 Liverpool Away win

Thats how they rolled Inshallah

It's settled then. The leaves don't lie. But don't let the word get out, as they will forfeit the game, which will make it only 0-3.

On a serious note though, I'm a bit worried that Fulham may get rallied by that "victory" at United. Combined with them being rock bottom but so tight on points to escape, it can be very dangerous. I hope we don't underestimate them in the slightest.

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Cruyff: "Victory is not enough, there also needs to be beautiful football."

It's settled then. The leaves don't lie. But don't let the word get out, as they will forfeit the game, which will make it only 0-3.

On a serious note though, I'm a bit worried that Fulham may get rallied by that "victory" at United. Combined with them being rock bottom but so tight on points to escape, it can be very dangerous. I hope we don't underestimate them in the slightest.

They played yesterday in a VERY intense game. Their entire back four and midfield will not recover to 100% in time, given that they have to do a training session tomorrow. The replacements, on the other hand, are all older and slower players. I think they put everything they had into the United game knowing full well it was their best bet of getting a result out of the two games. As always, our own complacency will hurt us. But if we put in even ONE half as intense as the Arsenal game, they won't have enough to stop us. And they have to face a snarling and hungry for a goal Suarez, a rampant Sturridge, a refreshed Coutinho and a lightning-quick Sterling. All the signs point to a win, and the only thing we have to worry about is ourselves.

We are good at saying the right things before games like this but haven't really shown that we actually BELIEVE we need to be up for these games as much as for the "big ones". We need our players wanting to win every game like this like it is a cup final. We showed at Stoke that we now have the firepower to score against "defensive" sides but let's try not to concede three this time! We need to be comparing our goal difference with City, not with Spurs! City's eight goal superiority could mean a hell of a lot in May. Third place means direct qualification to the Champions League avoiding the play-offs!

i think there would be a difference in our mentality now than there was even just over a week ago before the West Brom game. With Rodgers saying midweek that we are not in the title race, I believe behind the scenes he is telling the team different. We're just off the back of smashing the team at the top of the league 5-1. We are now only 6 points off the top with 13 to play, and the team at the top to come to Anfield where only 2 teams have left with any points. Brendan's pre match preparation will be all about getting the players up for this the way he got them up for Arsenal. I've no doubt we won't be as casual as we were against West Brom.

It's settled then. The leaves don't lie. But don't let the word get out, as they will forfeit the game, which will make it only 0-3.

On a serious note though, I'm a bit worried that Fulham may get rallied by that "victory" at United. Combined with them being rock bottom but so tight on points to escape, it can be very dangerous. I hope we don't underestimate them in the slightest.

Or they could be complacent and relax because they expected zero points from the two fixtures, now they have one. Works both ways.

Yossi Benayoun. Stoppage time. 1-0. Players run on the pitch. Still get goosebumps.

Maybe we'll smash in a late one this year that will finish off what we should've done in 08/09...I can dream ey?

I did mention a couple of weeks ago though that it is about time we stuck in a late winner against someone, that seems to be the difference between this team and Rafa's- you always thought they had a late one in them to nick a result. The flipside of course is that when we win we've been absolutely slaughtering teams so there's no need anyway!

I think some seem to forget that 3 points against Arsenal will only truly be meaningful if we then beat Fulham. It's all well and good beating Arsenal, but we also need to be beating the teams like Fulham and not get complacent. If we beat them, it'll be 10/12 for the last 3 games and we'll either get further away from United, closer to Arsenal or both We only need to worry about Spurs if WE fuck up. Nothing else. It's in our hands

If this lot comes out and tries to play football against us, they'll get killed. They must know this as well. I expect them to set up in a similar, anti-football, fashion as they did against United. This can turn into a frustrating game rather quickly. We just have to stay patient and keep on probing. We probably will not get many clear cut chances with 11 Fulham players in the box at all times, so we'll have to be clinical.

If this lot comes out and tries to play football against us, they'll get killed. They must know this as well. I expect them to set up in a similar, anti-football, fashion as they did against United. This can turn into a frustrating game rather quickly. We just have to stay patient and keep on probing. We probably will not get many clear cut chances with 11 Fulham players in the box at all times, so we'll have to be clinical.

The thing is, we'll get corners and free kicks. And we're lethal with those. Plus, the way to beat the ultra-defensive block is not to cross constantly, like Moyes had United do, but to run at them in the box and force penalties. In fact, it makes it even better that they do that, because once the first penalty occurs, the defenders then get caught in two minds as to whether to tackle or not, which creates shooting space in the box. It's a thing of beauty to have a team capable of hurting the opposition in more than one way

The thing is, we'll get corners and free kicks. And we're lethal with those. Plus, the way to beat the ultra-defensive block is not to cross constantly, like Moyes had United do, but to run at them in the box and force penalties. In fact, it makes it even better that they do that, because once the first penalty occurs, the defenders then get caught in two minds as to whether to tackle or not, which creates shooting space in the box. It's a thing of beauty to have a team capable of hurting the opposition in more than one way

That. And also, if defenders are constantly going to back off and back off on the edge of the area, shoot from 20-25 yards. Suarez, Sturrige and Gerrard are all more than capable of scoring from outside the area. I was genuinely shocked Rooney and RVP weren't trying their luck down this route. The Carrick goal actually came from such an instance. Even though it got a deflection you need to buy a ticket to win the raffle, ask Frank lampard he's probably scored 50 of those.

Can't underestimate them, and can't play like we did against West Brom. Leave nothing to chance, and just go out and press with the intensity we did against Arsenal. Fulham won't be as easy to beat on set pieces so we need to make sure out movement is good right from the word go.

No reason we shouldn't be able to beat these, but lets not play like we think its an inevitability.

The thing is, we'll get corners and free kicks. And we're lethal with those. Plus, the way to beat the ultra-defensive block is not to cross constantly, like Moyes had United do, but to run at them in the box and force penalties. In fact, it makes it even better that they do that, because once the first penalty occurs, the defenders then get caught in two minds as to whether to tackle or not, which creates shooting space in the box. It's a thing of beauty to have a team capable of hurting the opposition in more than one way

While I do agree with some things you say PoP, on this occasion I beg to differ. If 82 crosses results in a draw, if we manage to cross it 164 times, we should come away with a 4 - 2 win. You're just RAWK's PoP, and well, David Moyes is the manager of Manchester United. Remember, if you get to the byeline 8 or 9 times and get beat, the best thing to do is get to the byeline 18 or 19 times. *2 crosses not enough? Bring the goalie down the pitch as an additional winger to hammer in a few more. Or better still, try to get the pitch changed to the new regulations that David Moyes has asked the FA to consider.

12 months ago to the day, 10 February 2013, Iíd wager that many of us were sat around looking at the Premier League table and, aside from bemoaning the fact that Liverpool were 12 points off the Champions League places and just 12 points above 17thĖplace Aston Villa, we were trying to make sense of how this Manchester United vintage (more or less the same squad they have now) found themselves 12 points clear at the top of the table and coasting to another League Championship with 12 games to go. And just as it had been for years, it was as if they had a 12th man playing for them (no, not referees), some kind of extra dimension that allowed them to keep playing above expectations and picking up points at a rate that didnít seem altogether possible. Hey, they were good, no doubt about it, but 12 points better than the billionaires in second place with an ageing core of Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Carrick and Scholes, and younger players like Cleverley and Wellbeck who didnít seem all that great then and still donít a year later?

So what was it? Well if we didnít know then, we certainly do now. Replacing Alex Ferguson and his innate ability to manage, organise and inspire those players, replacing the respect and fear he commanded which was forged and relentlessly cultivated over two and a half decades and, perhaps most of all, replacing that psychotic will to win was always going to prove difficult and was likely to see Manchester United slip a few rungs down the ladder, at least in the short-term. What the Old Trafford brain trust did in hiring David Moyes, however, as those of us who could barely hide our glee at the time suspected right from the off, was effectively sabotage their own efforts to maintain two decades of virtually uninterrupted success. They stood in the living-room, poured a gallon of petrol around their ankles, struck a match and let it dangle precariously from between a finger and thumb. Only time will tell just how far they set themselves back, although itís likely to be cosmetic damage rather than a complete rebuild and those comparing Liverpool post-Souness to what Manchester United post-Moyes might look like are ignoring some key factors, the most glaring being the bafflingly dogged loyalty of David Moores to Souness that Moyes is unlikely to get from the Glazers to quite the same extent and the lack of business acumen of those in the Anfield boardroom that ultimately saw the club left far behind financially by the behemoth that eventually became Manchester United Football Club and, later, the oil barons of Chelsea and Manchester City, a fate that simply wonít befall them now regardless of what Moyes does.

What he has done is provided yet more compelling evidence of how important the manager of a football club truly is, a fact that Liverpool supporters seem to grasp more than most. The manager is everything. Once upon a time, not too long ago, those who sought to defend Roy Hodgsonís woeful approach to managing one of the biggest clubís in the world asked us to forget about the manager, the players were the ones at fault. That same mindset will undoubtedly manifest itself again (if it hasnít already) as a means to excuse Moyes for not only failing to keep a team that won the League Championship by 11 points last season competitive for a top-four finish this campaign, but has actually taken them into the same kind of ugly mid-table struggle in which Everton typically existed during his time there. Manchester United isnít Everton any more than Liverpool was Fulham, and yet the excuses will come for a man who, just like Hodgson, seems to be pig-headedly inflicting his small-minded, narrow footballing philosophy onto a club famed the world over for winning silverware, a combination proving to be every bit as appealing as a chalk and cheese wrap. Which is not to say that the squad of players bequeathed to him by his predecessor was perfect. Good managers, however, when presented with lemons, make lemonade. The great ones, of course, the Shanklys and the Paisleys to name two, go quite a bit further than that, producing a bottle of brandy from beneath their sleeve or perhaps a fine scotch whiskey and adding a few drops to the mix.

At what point do they become great? In truth, I think the best are probably born great, but mere mortals like us never see it until weíve had a couple of sips of that lemonade and liked the taste. It almost always begins with a philosophy, a vision, that allows the players assembled underneath its blueprint to play to their ability both collectively and individually and coalesce into something too powerful to stop and too quick to catch. The irresistible force and immoveable object rolled into one, if you will. And eventually, it all becomes very easy, or at least thatís how it appears. Shankly called football a very simple game. It isnít, but it may well have seemed that way to him. In 1964, or so we were told quite a bit over the weekend, Liverpool scored five goals against Arsenal on their way to their first League Championship under the great man. On Saturday it happened again, and I canít be the only one who feels something a little more meaningful than simple coincidence at play here. It feels like weíre seeing the beginnings of something. If the best make it look easy, then what does it mean that Saturdayís performance felt like the footballing equivalent of Albert Einstein reciting his two-times tables? A once-off? A coincidence? A case of one team ďshowing upĒ while the other was presumably still sitting on the team bus? I hope not. I think not.

For me, and Iíve already said as much in the Round Table thread, arguably the most pleasing aspect of the game against Arsenal was that, as a team, Liverpool allowed them nothing, and for the first hour (not just twenty minutes, a full hour), every effort they made to get something, anything was punished, like a child having their wrist slapped or a lab rat reaching for a piece of cheese and getting a shock for its trouble. Many have said that Arsenal were simply rubbish, a bad day at the office from them. Make no mistake, they were poor, but the lionís share of the credit for that absolutely must go to Liverpool. ÷zil had a poor game, but I doubt heís been hustled and bullied like that for a long time, if ever. This is a player who can destroy any team in the world if allowed; Liverpool didnít allow. His literal collapse onto the Anfield turf in the lead-up to the home sideís third was almost poetic, a physical manifestation of pure and utter submission. Like his team mates, he was under siege and buckling fast. Against maybe any other team in the league, he might have gotten away with the misplaced pass that Coutinho seized upon before blowing open the Gunnersí front door like so much semtex with just the tiniest wave of the wand otherwise known as his right foot and ushering Sturridge inside. And Koscielny and Mertesacker, responsible for protecting Szczęsny to the tune of more clean sheets than any other Ďkeeper in the League before Saturday, suddenly looked like teenage boys promoted above their age group a little too soon. Yes, Mertesacker is, to put it kindly, a little shy of pace, but how many teams have had the nous and raw ability to effectively strip him naked for all the world to see like that? Not many if the League positions before Saturday afternoon were anything to go by. Just Manchester City and their billions a few weeks back. Who else? Thatís because, regardless of Arsenalís weaknesses, it hasnít been an easy thing to do.

This team has the look of one to whom everything may soon come easy. The plan is there, the effort is there. The personnel still needs work and so too, therefore, does the ability, but the signs are good. Fulham away (bottom side, worst goal difference in the league but showing signs of life) is the precise kind of fixture that used to worry me, under Roy, under Ged, under Rafa, didnít matter. Iím not so worried about this one, and thatís no disrespect to Fulham who showed on Sunday that they can give as good as they get against an aimless mass of crosses and bodies into which world-class talents like Van Persie, Rooney and Mata get sucked like some kind of relentlessly boring footballing black hole. What theyíll be confronted with on Wednesday is an entirely different proposition, almost a different sport, if truth be told. Itíll still be 11 vs. 11, thereíll still be four officials and a football, but theyíll be facing an organised, motivated group with goals on their mind and the ability to get them and, most of all, that 12th man on the sideline orchestrating it, the man with the vision under whose watchful gaze all things suddenly seem possible. I can't wait.

While I do agree with some things you say PoP, on this occasion I beg to differ. If 82 crosses results in a draw, if we manage to cross it 164 times, we should come away with a 4 - 2 win. You're just RAWK's PoP, and well, David Moyes is the manager of Manchester United. Remember, if you get to the byeline 8 or 9 times and get beat, the best thing to do is get to the byeline 18 or 19 times. *2 crosses not enough? Bring the goalie down the pitch as an additional winger to hammer in a few more. Or better still, try to get the pitch changed to the new regulations that David Moyes has asked the FA to consider.

While I do agree with some things you say PoP, on this occasion I beg to differ. If 82 crosses results in a draw, if we manage to cross it 164 times, we should come away with a 4 - 2 win. You're just RAWK's PoP, and well, David Moyes is the manager of Manchester United. Remember, if you get to the byeline 8 or 9 times and get beat, the best thing to do is get to the byeline 18 or 19 times. *2 crosses not enough? Bring the goalie down the pitch as an additional winger to hammer in a few more. Or better still, try to get the pitch changed to the new regulations that David Moyes has asked the FA to consider.

I think your calculations are wrong. If we cross it 164 times, it will result in a 4-4 draw, because for every goal action, there is an equal but opposite goal reaction. Moyes failed to take this into account, although he should have been more than aware of it given his clear familiarity with the "Laps/Vomit Corollary"

Hahah fucking agreed, I've been dying for Wednesday to come!! I'm cautiously optimistic, let's not forget WBA or Aston Villa, take them seriously and fight for your life.

Cautiously optimistic? Well then, let me be the first to call you a giant quim. The only caution you should be showing is whether you've got a spare pair of undercrackers readily available in case you cream yourself at the almost pornographic shafting we're going to administer to them.

We're a bastard team to play against, press us and we'll hit you on the counter, sit back and play into the hands of Sturridge and Suarez to dribble one past you.

Aye, we are a hell of team to play against but only when we decide to turn up. I hope the team has learned from Villa and West Brom. If we go into the Fulham game with good intensity, we should be out of sight by half time. My concern is that if we aren't quite at the races during the 1st half, we will struggle even more in the 2nd half.

I think your calculations are wrong. If we cross it 164 times, it will result in a 4-4 draw, because for every goal action, there is an equal but opposite goal reaction. Moyes failed to take this into account, although he should have been more than aware of it given his clear familiarity with the "Laps/Vomit Corollary"